


It Started with a Little Blue Petal

by Geneviev



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, Hurt Nico di Angelo, M/M, Nico Feels, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Requited Unrequited Love, Sad with a Happy Ending, Suicidal Thoughts, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23910052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geneviev/pseuds/Geneviev
Summary: Nico is in love with Percy.Unfortunately for him, for the demigods whose parent is a god from the Underworld, it is possible to catch the Hanahaki disease.Fortunately for him, he gets his happy ending.I started this idea as a Tumblr post because I didn't want to write it, but now I've done it. So:Nicercy + Hanahaki
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 177





	It Started with a Little Blue Petal

It starts with a little blue petal.

Just a small forget-me-not.

But it means the whole world for a fourteen-year-old demigod.

Especially when it means that his whole world is gone.

He didn’t want to accept his feelings for a boy, his enemy, his cousin, his… everything. And now, he will die before he could at least tell his beloved that he doesn’t hate him.

Before Percy Jackson’s disappearance, he thought his dumb attraction towards the son of Poseidon’s was because he had hero-worship or a crush, or he just didn’t know his own emotions and confusing hatred with _like_. They can be mixed: both make one’s chest pressing painfully, both make fluttering in one’s stomach… Yes: before all of this, he would swim happily in the Nile.

But then Percy disappeared, and everything went downhill.

Before he could deny his feelings, but that little blue petal changed everything.

He is going to die.

Not because of the gods or monsters, but because of love.

How… amusing.

He lost everything because of that emotion. His father, who loved his immortal wife more than his children; his mother, who loved him and his sister so much she gave up her life to save them; Bianca because she fell in love at first sight with a pretty huntress and left him just to die. And now his own life.

And they say that Hades’ offspring are emotionless, coldhearted bastards.

Exhaustion is wearing him down as he shadow-travels to Camp Jupiter once again. He probably should sleep more, use his powers less. It makes his coughing fits a hundred times worse, but if there is one thing he wants to do before he dies, it is finding Percy. It would fit the previous theme of his life: doing everything for Perseus Jackson.

\---

The first time when coughs a petal up, he thinks it is because he did something that annoyed his stepmother, Persephone.

It was directly after he went to the Jackson – now Blofis – residence to meet with Percy. He doesn’t remember what had happened, the only picture he remembers clearly is Sally’s ashen face when she informed him that Percy is gone.

He didn’t even feel the cough building up, there was no sign that something bad would happen. But he remembers running from New York to his room in the Underworld and sprinting to the bathroom to retch.

He survived many hardships in his life, he felt physical and mental pain before, but it is the most horrible he’d ever felt. He gasps and cries as something is making its way out of his throat while choking off his airway. It is scratchy and scary, he barely avoids throwing up. When that something comes up, he pulls a little, pretty blue petal of a flower out of his horrible tasting mouth.

A forget-me-not.

Just a pretty, light blue flower.

He doesn't know what the Tartarus had just happened, so after cleaning himself and throwing the petal away, his first path leads to the library. He needs answers.

Well, he gets them.

**Hanahaki disease**

_The flowers, grown in the lungs and throat, results in the following symptoms: coughing, dizziness, shortness of breath, vomiting, coughing up petals, flowers, and blood, and eventual suffocation to death. The plant begins to grow when the victim believes that their deep love for another person is not returned or can not be returned for some reason. The infected will typically vomit petals, leaves, thorns, stems and full flowers continuously increasing in numbers, until asphyxiation or poisoning, if the flower is poisonous._

_For it is only affecting those who think their affection is unrequited, with proof that that love is requited, the flowers decrease in number to full recovery – but if it is indeed a one-sided love, there are only two possible outcomes._

_Experiments showed that with surgery you can remove the flowers from the lungs, but only with the root of its problem: love. The downside is that it yields mixed results. Most of the patients can be recovered, but in some cases, they instantly fall in love again with the beloved person._

_For the infected, who are unwilling to undergo such treatments or are not getting an honest declaration of love, the only ending is death._

How delightfully romantic.

It seemed children of the Underworld has one additional curse besides being pushed into the background: the hanahaki disease - or flower disease. Children of Hades, and the other death-powered gods, especially so those who spend so much time with the dead even if they are alive, could catch a deadly disease – like Nico did. While it usually starts with normal coughing, in some unlucky cases, if it is a particularly strong love, it can skip to phase two: coughing up petals. Nico is sooo blessed with it. 

After that, it becomes more and more lethal, with the petals becoming whole flowers. He can’t wait for the pain and gore and the ultimate death. He really can’t…

He knows, there is no chance that Percy is in love with him or will fall in love with him honestly, other than him being his selfless, loyal self who wants to save everybody. But loving Percy is so intertwined with his whole personality, he can’t imagine his life without this sentiment. He did everything for the green-eyed demigod, he forgave him for so much grief, even when he thought he hated the hero, he went back to protect him – he devoted everything to him. If he has to die, he’d do it for Percy, not because somebody killed him on a ridiculous quest. And… surgeries can’t cure everybody a hundred percent sure.

Knowing Percy, Nico is sure that he’d fall in love with the boy again. And it would start a vicious circle.

He can’t get Percy Jackson out of his head, out of his heart. It was the most secured secret Nico had, for years, he tried to hide it from everyone – even from himself. But this, Persephone-inspired disease means that he can’t deny it anymore: his whole life is defined by loving the unattainable Sea Prince. (Well, he knows, it’s not because of Persephone. She adores flowers and like to change unsuspecting demigods into one, but would never be so cruel, to make something like this. It actually comes from Narcissus – who is not of the Underworld, but after he wasted away in front of his reflection, he cursed the death gods that if they have an offspring with unrequited love, they would die because of that love – as he did.)

And now he is going to die because his feelings are so strong that there is a garden growing in his lungs. A pretty, Percy Jackson inspired, blue garden.

Figures.

He is going to die.

There is no other way.

But before death, he is going to find the one who made him coughing petals.

At least his flower isn’t poisonous… But either way, he feels kind of stupid to say it in his head that he is dying for love. And yet, he’d do it either way.

\---

After reading about the Hanahaki disease, what can only affect the demigods from the underworld, finding out about the Romans is just an afterthought. 

\---

He feels the roots burying themselves in his lungs. He feels as the stems are rising, the leaves are tickling the back of his throat. His mouth tastes like Persephone’s garden, it makes him gag. Nowadays he spends his days either traveling around America like a headless chicken to find Percy, visiting the boy’s mother, or in the bathroom, bending over the toilet.

Most of the time he only coughs a few petals, but as time passes without any sign of the lost hero, the flowers are getting bigger and bloodier. Sometimes he wakes up after a few our of nap just to find himself surrounded by baby blue flower-ocean.

He just stops sleeping.

\---

After another disappointing visit at Camp Jupiter, Nico goes to his bathroom to cough but ends up retching.

It’s not just a few petals anymore. He throws up a small mountain of petals with a hint of blood sticking to them. It’s a mess, and he knows he has to clean it up before the ghoul-maid goes to his father to tell him about it, but he can’t will himself to move from his place next to the toilet.

It's comfortable.

And he is tired. Tired of love, tired of flowers, tired of life.

Just… he wants all of this to end finally.

He stares at the pile of petals detached until his eyes start to burn with repressed tears. 

\---

When he throws up his first flower, he cries and sobs and screams.

And he goes to Camp Jupiter anyway.

\---

Before the Hanahaki, he didn’t let anybody close to him. Not even Percy, but the boy didn’t care about it – he befriended Nico anyway.

Now, he is not letting anybody close to him even less so. Annabeth tried like she wanted to maintain the idealistic and naive Sea Prince’s effort, but he doesn’t want to stay with them. He works better without their constant worrying. He only goes to Camp Half-Blood to check on what’s happening there.

The only thing he does, apart from shadow-traveling and coughing, is visiting Sally. He can’t say anything helpful to her, but she may be the only being in the whole world, who loves Percy as much as Nico, so he kind of feels like the short meetings are helping for both of them. She is concerned about him, about the circles around his eyes, his unnaturally pale complexion, his obvious insomnia, and hurt.

She - a saint -, wants to help him, just like her son did.

He declines.

It is both helpful and utterly painful for him, but he keeps going back.

Nobody else had the thought that they should look after Sally and Paul Blofis. Just Nico.

\---

The full realization of this mess and it's apparent end hits him like a vicious hellhound.

He turns his back against the wall of the Blofis’ bathroom, sinking down to the floor powerless. All the strength leaves his body, breathing becomes a hard task, and not only because of the blooming flowers.

His vision is blurry, he feels the tears sliding down on his cheeks.

There’s a rush of waves in his ears, like Poseidon’s rage, he can’t hear anything else, not even the frantic knocking against the door.

The world around him is rapidly fading into nothingness. His last glimpse is Sally, who is standing in the broken doorway, staring at him, eyes wide and frightened.

\---

“It’s something only children of the Underworld can catch. There’s nothing to worry about” is the only answer Nico gives to her before melting into the shadows.

\---

Some days Nico feels disconnected from his body. He can’t feel the pain, can’t feel the suffocation.

Some days he feels hollow.

Some days he wakes up from his little naps gasping for air, and there are blood and petals in his hands.

Some days he feels like he wants to scream, but the forget-me-nots are choking his throat. The pressure in his lungs is not going anywhere anymore.

Some days he just wants to die.

Some days he thinks it would have been better and kinder if he had died in the war against Kronos.

\---

Roots are burrowing in his lungs, leaves are blocking his airway. He feels like drowning - he almost does.

His curls are damply sticking to his face as he washes his face after a particularly bad fit. He feels hot and cold at the same time, he is shivering even in a warm, soft, fluffy, sky-blue hoodie. Percy's hoodie.

He lost weight, shadow-traveling is even more stressful than it was before, and his grasps on his abilities were no longer as powerful as it was.

He is dying.

He is searching for Percy everywhere; he goes to Camp Jupiter at least two times a week, but nothing. His world is gone and he doesn’t know how to find him.

He is fading.

He feels like he is one of the ghosts. But he is not.

At least, not yet.

Talking to Reyna is always a challenge. She is suspicious of him, she doesn’t like the fact that he turned up after Jason Grace went missing, but at the same time, she is kind and thoughtful.

But convincing Octavian that he truly is the Ambassador of Pluto and that he doesn’t want to live there but will show up every two-or-three days… It’s almost impossible.

Almost.

He has something to find before he dies – no questioning praetor or distrustful augur will stop him doing that.

\---

Another day, another disappointment. He talked to the others a bit, but as soon as he is safely in his room in Hades’ domain, he succumbs into a coughing fit that was growing all day that he had to spend surrounded by the other demigods. It was slowly but surely becoming harder to hide his little _problem_.

He falls onto his knees as he is retching and coughing.

Pretty blue flowers for his love.

He looked up its meaning in Persephone’s library.

It is amusingly fitting…

Blue for Percy, but the forget-me-not in flower language is also appropriate: true and undying love for the Sea Prince, a connection that lasts through time and death. Fidelity and loyalty despite separation. Remembrance.

He shivers as he vomits up another batch of sticky, bloody flowers.

Everything is too much.

He just wants it to finally end.

\---

And then Percy appeared.

Of course, he did.

Nico wasn’t at Camp Jupiter at the time, he had to stay for a bit at the Underworld to recuperate, but when he arrives to the Romans, he immediately knows.

There is no other demigod who gives out so powerful aura and life-force like Percy does.

He immediately rushes to find him, to reassure himself that he is alive and well.

To see Percy before he finally dies.

The son of Poseidon was coming from Reyna when they collide because they didn’t pay attention to their surroundings.

„It’s you,” breaths Percy his first words to Nico as he blinks owlishly the boy underneath him. „You are the boy of my dreams! I – I know you.” His whole being is radiating both happiness and confusion. He is skinny and haunted, but alive and breathing. Nico can’t find the strength in him to dislocate the boy out of his lap, even is the floor is hard and his lungs are screaming for breath.

He is going to die, but at least before that, he can spend a little time near to his beloved. 

“Well, maybe we’ve met before”, tries to tease the other boy. Percy is looking at him, really looking at him, and he feels himself blush, and another flower wants to crawl out of his mouth.

He swallows painfully.

He sits up, Percy still in his lap, to be able to breathe a bit easier.

He can’t, not without throwing up a bouquet of flowers, but at least he can see better the Sea Prince.

“No. I mean, yes, obviously – without our meeting, I wouldn’t remember you. But I don’t think it was just a meeting. I know, I know you. I trust you. I…” Percy presses his hand to his chest and starts to scratch it, as he wants to rip out something from it. “I love you,” whispers confusedly.

“What did you say?” Nico breaths stunned. All in his life, apart from a few happy memories, he had known pain and the scorn of everyone around him. He is the son of the most hated god, he is the gloomy, grumpy, anti-social _nobody_.

He always felt the fear that radiated off of the other demigods – that’s why he hates staying at the camp. He can’t fathom, can’t believe that someone could feel anything for him, especially not love.

He loves Perseus Jackson with everything he is, but to imagine it is requited?

No…

“I… I think I’m in love with you”, nods Percy with eyes wide. “I don’t remember much, but when I look at you, I feel safe and protected and cherished. I love you. I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable…” He mumbles the last words, but Nico, so close to him, can hear it clearly.

Percy?

Loves?

Him?

“No, it’s not, but… but – you… maybe you are confusing me with somebody else?” asks Nico despairingly and brings his hand up to his heart to press it down a bit. The flowers are suffocating, but the hope is devastating.

“No!” shouts Percy, and finally notices where he is. Quickly jumps up from Nico’s lap, and wants to hide his flushing face behind his hands. “Sorry, I won’t mention it again. I’ll just… go now and find a nice lake or river where I can hide forever. Bye!”

He is running before Nico could comprehend his sentences, but as soon as he can manage to get his brain functioning, he is running after the boy, not caring about the pain in his lungs, the flowers threatening to choke.

“No, don’t go! I… I love you. Gods, I love you”, breathes through the agony. Percy stops but doesn’t turn around, only when Nico makes a strange, painful sound. “But you have no memories, and what if you are wrong?” Nico wouldn’t live through this.

“I’m not”, declares Percy firmly and walks back to the wheezing son of Hades.

It is not a perfect fairytale ending, but it is their perfect fairytale beginning. There will be problems in the future – the challenges with gaining the Romans’ trust, the little _thing_ with the Roman and Greek gods and demigods, the war against Gaia, when Percy recovers his memories… but it’s a promising start for their relationship.

\---

Nico wakes up coughing the next morning, so he knows it’s definitely not over. But, he realizes that it is the first time in six months that he could sleep for more than just one hour, and – there are no petals on the bed.

He swallows, and it’s less painful than before. The constant itch in his throat disappeared, the scratching leaves are no longer there.

His eyes are prickling with unshed tears, but he won’t cry – he has things to do.

His first path leads to Sally, to promise her, her son is in good hands now but can only see him after everything is done. She is frustrated, but exhilarated at the same time – but she knows she can leave her son’s well being to Nico.

His second path leads to Camp Jupiter.

To Percy.

He didn’t consciously decide what will he say to the boy when he next sees him, but when he is standing in front of Percy, he knows. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Percy’s smile shines so brightly, he wants so badly to kiss him, but…

He stops himself.

He can’t kiss Percy, not yet.

They have time. Before getting their happily ever after, they have things to do.

In the end, they achieve defeating Gaia and saving the world while Nico’s little garden slowly but surely fades.

And if he gives the only preserved forget-me-not to Percy for their first anniversary, it is their business.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Hanahaki disease, I think it is beautiful, but I hate it when the love ends up being really an unrequited love. It is so sad even without the ultimate death... :(  
> What do you think?


End file.
